EPISODE FIVE

HOLA, ROSITA GONZALEZ

After a few weeks, the travelers docked once again on a seashore. They walked around the beach and found a lot of people who didn't speak English. Everybody who communicated with everybody else spoke Spanish.

Suddenly Stephanie pointed to a sign. "We're in Mexico!" she exclaimed.

"We've crossed the border of our country!" Matthew couldn't believe they'd already left America.

"I'm kind of hungry," said Alexis. "I wonder if Mexico has any nice restaurants."

"There's a little village that way, honey," said Lionel. "Let's go to the village."

So they did, and they started walking around. Finally they came to a restaurant with a sign that said: "Papa Gonzalez: Tacos, Burritos, y Quesadillas". All of that food sounded good to the travelers, so they went inside.

After the hostess showed them to their table, Ben pulled out a chair for Stephanie and kissed her on the cheek as she sat down. Stephanie smiled.

A few minutes after they sat down, a beautiful young waitress came over to their table. "Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Rosita Gonzalez. My father is the manager of this restaurant. Are you on vacation here?"
she asked, looking at Matthew.

Matthew blushed upon seeing her pretty face. He couldn't even answer her.

"No," said Ben, noticing how embarrassed Matthew was. "We're on a trip for our schools. We're all from different schools, but they each assigned us to go with these tourists and look for the cities of gold and then write about it. We're on our way to the city of gold in the Andes right now."

"Oh, my teachers told me about that place," said Rosita enthusiastically. "They told us how the Spaniards invaded that territory long ago. It was the sixteenth century. From all over Europe great ships were sailing west to conquer the New World, also known as the Americas. There were men who were eager to seek their fortune to find new adventures in new lands. They longed to cross uncharted seas and discover unknown countries, to find secret gold on a mountain trail high in the Andes."

"Wow," said Stephanie, "the gold's really ancient if it was around back in the 1500s!"

"The men who came wanted to be rich," explained Rosita. "They dreamed of following the path of the setting sun that leads to El Dorado and the Mysterious Cities of Gold."

"Wow! I bet if they went back with all those riches, they'd have made Donald Trump or Bill Gates jealous, if Trump and Gates lived in their time," said Ben.

Matthew suddenly stood up. "You know, Rosita, you really do know a lot. Did you know that Bill Gates, in his business, is in charge of computers? Did you know he and Donald Trump are two of the richest men in America? That Donald Trump is the ULTIMATE richest?"

"I did," said Rosita.

"Did you know there are several different computer programs, including Macintosh, Apple, and Windows?" Matthew asked. "And the Internet is one of the fastest-growing ways of communication around the world?"

"I knew that, too," said Rosita.

Stephanie leaned close to Ben. "He's trying to impress her," she whispered.

"What good does THAT do?" asked Ben. "She already knows this stuff!"

"Researching on the Internet is fun, too," said Matthew. "I love to study. I am quite the scholar."

"How could you guess when his report card's full of C's and D's?" Ben muttered under his breath. But Matthew overheard that and glared at him.

"I am one of the potential candidates for any Ivy League School," Matthew went on. "Harvard and Princeton are seriously considering me."

"Mmm hmm," Ben murmured sarcastically.

Just then a young man walked in and kissed Rosita on the cheek while hugging her close. "Hello, my sweet Rosita," he said.

"Hello, darling. Guys, I want you to meet my fiancé, Raul Garcia," she said to the explorers.

Matthew's heart sank. He muttered to Ben, "No fair! You wear geeky clothes like a top hat, a striped shirt, and polka dot shorts and you got a beautiful girl in just a few days!"

"Don't hate me because I'm geeky," Ben teased back. "Besides, we'll be gone a whole year. You're bound to find somebody sometime in these twelve months."

"This is going to be the longest year of my life!" Matthew sighed.

TO FOLLOW...

When Ben and his friends go back for their ship to sail to Chile, it has been stolen, so they must go to the airport. But the airplane is delayed. Make sure you don't miss the next episode of THE MYSTERIOUS CITIES OF GOLD REVISITED.